If the corporate Grim Reaper is truly knocking on the door of The SCO Group, no one seems to have told Darl McBride, the software vendor's president and CEO.

Since early August, SCO has lost a key court ruling in its lawsuit against Novell, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and reported weak third-quarter results. But McBride insists that no one should make plans for SCO's funeral yet.

"There's the view out there that we're just dead, and everybody's claiming victory over SCO," he said in an interview on September 28. "It's like the Linux faithful are lined up for the bad news. They've got their confetti ready to throw, and everybody's all excited."

But, McBride contended, it's far too soon to call the final result of the legal battle between SCO and Novell over ownership of the copyrights to Unix. "One bad ruling does not a full legal conclusion make," he said.

In addition, there's a big difference between a Chapter 11 financial restructuring and a liquidation, McBride said.

Raven Zachary, an analyst at The 451 Group, agreed that the naysayers may be writing off SCO a bit prematurely. "They have big customers, like McDonald's," he said. "It's not over yet. Companies come out of bankruptcy."